GRM 259-01 - Criminals, Outcasts, and (con) Artists in German Culture

4 credits (Spring)

Cross-listed as: GLS 259-01. This course focuses on the portrayal of perpetrators, ranging from petty thieves to mass murderers in German language literature and film. We begin with the 18th Century, reading H.L. Wagner’s The Child Murderess to explore authority and freedom, as well as punishment and redemption. We survey Classical, Naturalist and Modernist writers (Kleist, Hauptmann, Mann, Döblin), who understood crime as a symptom of a broken society. The course concludes with the question of criminal regimes and dissent as the necessary route to justice. Taught in English.

Prerequisite: Second-year standing.
Instructor: Reynolds